Threats to Neb. university over Ayers detailed

OMAHA, Neb. _ Excerpts from e-mails, phone calls and Internet posts over the University of Nebraska's speaking invitation to former radical Bill Ayers show how blurred the line between outrage and threat can get.

The university released a memo that included the excerpts, as well as university police reports detailing concerns about Ayers' visit, which had been scheduled for Nov. 15. UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman rescinded the invitation to Ayers last week, citing safety concerns.

The memo came from UNL psychology associate professor Mario Scalora, who is on the university's threat assessment team.

"Remember our conversation a while back when I promised to let you know when to worry when discussing campus safety?" Scalora's memo to Perlman read. "Sadly, we need to chat."

Scalora said in his memo to Perlman and university Police Chief Owen Yardley that people and groups would undoubtedly attempt to disrupt the event if Ayers were allowed to speak.

But some of the excerpts provided in the memo revealed people who appeared more malevolent than mad.

One posting to an Internet blog declared, "Give me a sniper rifle and a good firing position, and I shall move Bill Ayers' gray matter."

The entry was signed "Lee Harvey Cornhusker" -- a reference to John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

Another read, "Where is my AR-15 when I need it?" and another professed, "I know a couple of squirrel hunters who could have nailed him before he got off the tarmac ... (Note to FBI -- just kidding ...)."

Ayers, an education professor in Illinois, was a founder of the Weather Underground, a group that claimed responsibility for bombing several government buildings, and has become a lightning rod in the U.S. presidential campaign.

The university said it received more than 1,000 e-mails and phone calls about the Ayers invitation.

Ayers did not immediately respond to e-mails sent to him Thursday by The Associated Press seeking comment. Calls to a telephone listing for a William C. Ayers in Chicago went unanswered.

A woman who answered the phone Thursday at the University of Chicago's department of education said Ayers was not expected to return to his office until sometime next year.

Quotes extracted from e-mails and phone calls to the university listed in the memo were less ominous than Internet entries, but still caused Scalora and others to fear for the safety of Ayers and those attending his address.

"If Ayers is allowed to speak, when he sees the 'Sea of Red' as he drives by Memorial Stadium, it will remind him of the blood that UNL has on their hands for this," one example read.

Others promised to stage protests on the campus if Ayers was allowed to speak.

Yardley said that it would have been extremely difficult to change the venue of the Ayers' speech and provide all of the security measures that would have been needed to make the visit safe for Ayers and those attending his lecture.

Yardley has been UNL's police chief for seven years. Prior to that, he served with the Lancaster County Sheriff's Department for 22 years.

"I haven't been involved in a situation that had this kind of outcry in my time in law enforcement," Yardley said.

Perlman acknowledged the e-mails, phone calls and Internet blog entries regarding Ayers' visit when he addressed reporters Monday about his decision to cancel the visit.

He noted that not all of the angry e-mails came from those opposed to Ayers' visit.

"We have had numerous e-mails from people just as upset with us for canceling as those upset with us for having invited him in the first place," Perlman said.